FOR me, directing goes hand in hand with writing and acting. They
are the three supreme elements that go into creating and presenting
works intended for performance. Beginning in high school I wrote AND
directed student films which were very popular and which eventually
led to my acceptance at the UCLA Motion Picture/Television Department
(only 13 admitted nation wide in 1973). I directed a number of film
and TV projects there.

Playing director in 1971 having made numerous 8mm and Super
8mm movies throughout high school, including receiving Honorable Mention
in the Kodak Teenage Movie Awards for my documentary "THE CANYON."

Then it was many months living and traveling
throughout Mexico, filming everywhere, and eventually
creating a 40 minute documentary which in part was responsible for
my acceptance to the UCLA Motion Picture/Television
Department.

But a funny thing happened upon graduating from film
school: I became a professional stage actor. Hence, I began directing
plays myself. One of my favorite shows was Tennessee Williams's "A
PERFECT ANALYSIS GIVEN BY A PARROT" performed in San Diego,
California.

A couple of Tennessee Williams ladies just
waiting for a couple of gentlemen callers....

I appeared briefly at the end as a partygoer. (See below
-- I'm on the left blowing the party favor. If the woman on
the right looks familiar to you, maybe you recall her from
the very end of "THE BLUES BROTHERS" movie. Sue
Strain was an extra in that classic, and wears the exact same
outfit!)

And at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego:

I directed a reading of the first draft of "THE TURN OF THE
CENTURY" for The Old Globe Theatre Play Discovery Project. The
young man on the right is future TV star Kelsey Grammer.

Below is yours truly performing with the wonderful Gillian Farrell
in my own play "MALAGASY FIGS" which I directed shortly
before moving to New York City. Gillian later married Larry Beinhart,
the author of the book upon which "WAG THE DOG" was based.
Gillian is an accomplished writer herself, with the "Annie McGrogan"
series of detective tales.

"A DAY FOR SURPRISES" is a hilarious farce by
John Guare which I directed and performed with the funny Laura Rankin.
We play a couple of repressed librarians working in the basement
of the Rare Book Room:

By the end of the play our librarians are in the throes of
an ecstatic passion:

A CLARIFICATION:

I am not an advocate of the actor directing
himself on the stage. The above situations were unique; these were
simple one-act plays that the theatrical management in all instances
ASKED me to direct as well as act in. (An actor directing himself
on film and video is another matter since the actor-director can
step back and look at rushes and video playback and make appropriate
adjustments. Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen are prime examples.)

There are those who are opposed to the idea
of a writer directing his own work. My philosophy is: who is more
intimately knowledgeable about the work? Who is more aware of what
the overall effect should be as well as of the intricate nuances
of the piece? There are many examples of successful writer-directors
and if the author can communicate well with the actors and convey
his ideas and concepts with grace, style, power and effect, let
the results speak for themselves!

Another issue is that of stage versus film.
I have studied deeply and practiced professionally in theatrical
stage production, dramatic writing as well as film history, theory
and technique. I've learned first hand the process of adapting stage
plays to the screen. (William Wyler was a supremely successful practitioner
of stage to screen adaptations, as were John Huston and the earlier
work of John Ford and with Michael Curtiz, David O. Selznick, etc.
novels were wonderfully adapted to the screen as well.). I started
out in film school and realized that if the script is no good, the
film wouldn't be either. Theatre is the pure expression of dramatic
writing and that is where I went to further and deepen my education.
I am proud to know that I have LIVED (as an actor) many of the great
classics of the past several centuries. I have gained a confidence
earned from years of experience.

Should a writer direct his own work? Effective
RESULTS should silence those nay-sayers who put up their road blocks
through prejudice or jealousy or as mere echoers of abstract theories.

"The play's the thing!" I personally
relish the opportunity to meet and work with the many talented and
brilliant directors employed today on stage, film and television.
I welcome showing any and all interested and serious-minded directors
and producers my scripts! Successful artistic collaboration among
talented artists and professionals united in a shared vision is
my goal!

In 1983 I wrote and directed "Icy Waters"
starring Glynis Bell and William Preston, recorded at the Young
Filmmakers/Video Arts on the Lower East Side of New York City. Finally
edited in 2009 a 10-minute version of this short was screened in
December 2009 as part of the Zero Film Festival at the downtown
independent theater in Los Angeles and at the Anthology Film Archives
in New York City, ironically only blocks away from where it had
been recorded 26 years earlier.

From 2000 to 2005 I was a member of The Actors Studio West Playwright/Director
Unit headed by Mark Rydell and Lyle Kessler. Although they frown
upon a playwright directing his own work for the purposes of their
particular workshop, whose aim is to pair directors with writers,
I have been permitted to direct staged readings of selections from
several of my plays there when directors were unavailable.. Below
are rehearsal photos for a reading of "THE TURN OF THE CENTURY":

In October 2003 I was invited to become an observer in the new
Director Unit headed by Mark Rydell and Mark Travis at the Actors
Studio West.

Mark
Rydell, Artistic Director and Co-Executive Director
of The Actors Studio West. Among his acclaimed films as director
are "The Fox," "The Reivers," "The Cowboys,"
"The Rose," "On Golden Pond," "James Dean,"
etc. As an actor he's played everything from the vicious gangster
in "The Long Goodbye" to Woody Allen's sidekick agent
in "Hollywood Ending."

In February 2007 I returned to directing behind the camera once
again as production commenced on "THE CALISTRA ZIPPER STORY."
It was high time I learned 21st century digital video production
and editing and I used this project to familiarize myself with these
new and fantastic techniques. I can't imagine where I would be today
had I had access to all these incredible technologies available
now when I began filmmaking in the 1960s. The means were modest:
a $1,000 Sony Hi 8 Digital Video camcorder edited with Adobe Premiere
Pro 2 software.

"The Calistra Zipper Story" was a very unusual production
in that the performances were virtually completely improvised by
the actors and myself. There was no shooting script as I wanted
a spontaneous spirit to resemble the Howard Stern Show experience.
Hence the incredibly long amount of time to complete the editing.
(With sometimes months between editing sessions due to jobs, life,
distractions, etc. I had no deadline.) I did want a coherent story,
and so a few scenes were scripted. The actual ending to the movie
did not occur to me until more than half way through filming. Videographer
Brandon Kaplan assisted me enormously in learning various digital
video editing techniques. It was a fascinating experience. Final
edit occurred July 8, 2010.

Meanwhile in 2009 I edited my 1983 video "Icy Waters"
and that was shown at the 2nd Zero Film Festival in December.

The following year I made the documentary "Remembering Fayard,"
featuring my dear friend actress/singer/dancer Katherine Hopkins-Nicholas
who reminisced about her life with her late husband Fayard Nicholas,
the famous dancer of the Nicholas Brothers dance team who were so
talented they became international stars as children. In the early
1930s at the Cotton Club, they were a sensation. They starred on
Broadway and in the 1940s their wondrous dance routines were showcased
in fabulous Hollywood musicals. The Nicholas Brothers continued
to perform on stage and television for decades. Fayard was still
dancing in his 90th year along with his young wife Katherine in
2005.

Dear wonderful Katherine passed away August 15, 2012 at the youthful
age of 61.

Also in 2010 I created "Caprice or He Made Herself A Star"
another documentary, this one about Alexis Del Lago, underground
Manhattan cabaret star and a fabulous clothing designer, a glamorous
personality of New York City who blazed upon the scene at Andy Warhol's
Factory from the 1960s through the 1980s. Reclusive and temporarily
frail from a health crisis (she's much better as of March 2013)
and in her seventies, Alexis consented to appear before the video
camera and tell her life story. Many of her glamorous portraits
from the '60s were painstakingly restored for this production. The
first public screening was presented by the Third Zero Film Festival
in December 2010 at the historic Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood,
CA.